Of The Cold and Dark Days
by rebekahlovessuperwholock
Summary: This is not actually from any show, but it was actually devised from my head. Agraina Loftin is trapped in a building that shifts and shapes into things she remembers from before her kidnapping. But when she gets out, there's far more to the story...
1. Chapter 1

It was dark. And it was quiet, and I was scared. Could I do anything about it? No. I couldn't move, and I couldn't see. What I could do was sweat and cry in the hopes the Lord in all his goodness would save me from the danger I was being slowly gripped into. The barbed wire that held me in this prison cut deeply through my skin, tearing at the bones of my arms. The rope tied tightly around my mouth pulled at my jaw and caused complete and utter misery. I had to get out somehow. I just wish I knew how. I remembered very little of how I got here. I just sort of found myself here. One minute I was home, and suddenly there was a pound on my head. When I woke up, I was in a room with white walls, a well-lit ceiling, and one door. I had been transferred many times, from room to room, each one looking the same. I never saw the face of those who transferred me, I just felt hands grabbing my wrists, back before they were torn, and bringing me to another room. They didn't do much with me in any of them. Occasionally I was fed some moldy bread and water. It tasted awful, but at least I wasn't too hungry. Then, they transferred me to the dark room. I felt my wrists being bound by that horrible barbed wire, and the rope around my mouth being tied far too tight. They left me there; slipping in and out of consciousness.

I heard footsteps pounding on the ground, getting closer and closer. I didn't know what to do, and the terror inside my body devoured me to the point where anxiety was all I knew, all I was feeling. I couldn't think of anything else but Oh God, I am going to die. The footsteps drew closer, and I grew more terrified. It reminded me too much of when I was transferred day after day, and the thought of having to do it over again wasn't exactly relieving. A rough hand gripped my mouth, and suddenly I felt a knife cutting into the rope that held my mouth shut.

I was guided into a room. Let me rephrase that, I was shoved forward until I'd reached a room. They sat me down on a seat where I could see a plate with bread and cheese. It wasn't moldy or gross, it actually looked relatively appetizing. There was a glass of juice next to it. The man who had taken me to this room spoke.

"Please, eat; you need sustenance to go where you'll be going."

He cut the wires and I took the bread. As I began to chew, the muscles in my jaw started to burn. I stopped and massaged it a little, which caused my wrists to hurt. It was almost impossible to eat, but the hunger it my stomach continued, so I forced myself through the pain and managed to finish my food. I then downed the juice and looked at the man sitting across from me.

"Why am I here?" I asked him.

He laughed. "Heck, I don't know, I been here a long time and I still don't understand half the crap they shoving through my head."

It was at that point that I got even more afraid and concerned. "What do you mean?"

"Oh, you didn't know? Let me tell you, yawl's is stupid. Real stupid. They are testin' medical things on your brain. Things they just don't knows good yet. If they're good, they keep 'em. If they're not, you're screwed."

I immediately got up and ran out of the room. Medical testing? What did he mean? Had I been tested on? If so, maybe none of this was actually happening. I ran and ran and ran, hoping I could find an exit. But instead of an exit, I ran right into a man. A large, intimidating man. He grabbed my blood-crusted wrist and pulled me down to the floor.

"What are you doing in the halls?!" He screamed at me so loud I swear I thought my eardrums were just going to shatter. I tried pulling away, but he grabbed my wrist again and the pain surged through my body, causing me to fall to the ground with a cry of horror. The man's voice rose again.

"I asked you a question. Now answer it. What are you doing in the halls?!"

"I-I was, um, I was trying to find a bathroom."

He laughed. Then he pulled my face right up against his. I nearly choked, his breath smelled so foul. What did he want anyway? And what did it have to do with me?

"You don't really think we'd let you use one do you? Bathroom…" he chuckled to himself as he walked off, and I took the opportunity to have a look around. I walked down the hall and turned the corner. There was yet another long hallway, stretching out pretty far. That's when I noticed a door. It was one of many, but for some reason, it stuck out to me. I walked over to it and tried the handle. Locked. I tried another door. It was locked as well. After trying all the doors in the hall, I went back to the first one, took a deep breath, and knocked. I heard movement, but whoever was in there wasn't speaking. Someone was in there, I knew it. And if they were bound and gagged the same way I was, I needed to get them out.

"Hang on; I'll get you out of there." I looked around for cameras, and when I saw none, I pulled out a pin from my hair, or what was left of it. After a lot of struggling, the door gave way and I got in. A boy, I'd say about my age, was sitting there. Sweating and crying just like I was, and bound, just like I was, with barbed wire. He looked like he was in more pain than I was, so I immediately started to carefully unwrap the wire. I then untied the rope around his mouth and helped him up.

"What's your name?" I asked him.

He rubbed his eyes. "My name is Portin. Portin Locifer."

"Well it's nice to meet you. I'm Agraina Loftkin."

I wasn't sure if that was my actual name, really. I just thought that maybe it sounded a bit like the one I had back home. I turned and looked at this boy called Portin, and then motioned for him to follow me. We walked out and I looked around to be sure it was safe. It was. For now, of course. We walked on and looked for a door out. The place wasn't very secure, and only the doors containing people were locked. This made it very easy for us to get around. We looked for an open door, trying many to find one. Finally, we came across a door that led outside. When I opened it, I was nearly blinded by the light that it let in, as the building we were in was very dark. We stepped outside, and my hand slipped into Portin's. I didn't want to lose the only person next to me, even if he was a stranger. It was weird, though, almost like I had known him from somewhere else. I knew it couldn't be possible, because where ever I was, it couldn't be close to where I lived. When we got outside, I realized it was just a courtyard. But I didn't want to leave. So, with Portin following me, I walked out onto the path, and looked around at the trees and the plants and all of their beauty.

It was so nice to be outside, because, to be honest, I have no idea how long I'd been in that room. Maybe years, they'd come in daily to give me the leftovers from what they had been eating, which had usually gone bad by then. I was starved, bleeding and alone for a long time. And now, I don't even remember what life was like before this dreadful thing happened to me. Looking at these trees reminded me. And I realized that regardless of how I tried, it may never be the same, and I may never escape.

"Look over there!" Portin had found a door that may lead out. I ran to it and tried to open it.

"It's locked," I said sadly. I had been hoping and praying it would lead us to safety. We tried every door in the room, and they were all locked.

"Wait a minute," I said, starting to panic. "The door we came out through. It's locked as well. We're trapped out here!"

"What?!" Portin cried out, he was very scared for being a 15-year-old boy. We ran into the middle of the garden and hid, because we could hear one of the doors unlocking. We hid inside a bush, trying to make ourselves hidden. We covered each other's mouths to ensure we didn't make any noise, and then hoped for the best.

The person who unlocked the door spoke. "Come out; come out, wherever you are!" The footsteps got closer and closer, and I got scared again, if it weren't for Portin covering my mouth, I would have screamed. The man looked around, looked up in a few trees, and after searching through a couple of outside bushes, he started to move inward. Then, he finally decided to go back inside. I released a sigh of pure relief. We climbed out of the bushes and I picked the lock on the door we tried first. Just as I opened it, I caught a glimpse of a bright stage light. The doors lead into a large arena. There were people fighting, beating each other up. The arena was small, so we kept hidden. As I watched the brawlers, I saw the same blood marks on their wrists. "Oh my gosh," I whispered to myself. "They're from the cells. We'd be doing this same exact thing!"

"No," Portin replied. "I would. I've done this before. It's only the boys who fight. The girls get abused."

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"You know what I mean."

"No," I started crying. Not for me, but for Portin. How could he have fought these fist fights and survived? I wasn't the strongest, but I was pretty sure I was stronger than him. How he could have lasted this long baffled me. He had looked more damaged than me when I found him, but still, he must have been far more damaged than that. I was starting to lose my sanity, and it wasn't going to well. Just as I was calming down, I saw one of the boys pick up a chair leg and twist it into the other's skull. Blood spilled everywhere. I started bawling, but thankfully by now we were under the bleachers, and there was so much cheering above us that they couldn't hear me. Portin wrapped his bony little arms around me.

"You're going to be ok," he whispered gently. "Soon we'll be out of here. Come on, let's go."

He led me through the door we came in through, and we looked around a bit more. We tried a couple more doors, but all of them were to no avail. Except for when we opened a closet. It was dark , and it was full of weapons. Bows, pistols, machine guns, knives, and grenades. I pulled a few of the pistols out, and Portin grabbed a bow and a quiver of arrows.

"I'm real good at shooting with a bow," He explained. I was never any good. I could never keep the arrow in the bow and I didn't understand how it fired. But I was good with guns, I always was. I could blow a man's head off from a mile away if I wanted to. I pulled some ammo from a shelf and grabbed Portin. We then opened the door that lead inside and marched through. I wasn't afraid anymore. It was as if any fear I had before had been lifted, and I could shoot down whoever threatened me. A man approached us, wire in hand, and I shot both his feet. He screamed in pain as I walked on. Little did I know there was an alarm set up in the building. The man who I'd shot got up, using the side rail to pull himself up, and pushed the button that caused it to sound. It was at that point that men came pouring in from everywhere. I saw Portin trying his best to defend himself. But before I knew it, he was being beaten and thrown down to the ground. I remember screaming his name, hoping he'd break through. I turned around and punched the men behind me as hard as I could, but they got me down too, and before I knew it, I was unconscious.


	2. Chapter 2

I woke up in a room full of people. All teenagers, like me, all miserable in their own way, and all bound in pairs by barbed wire. The place stunk of sweat and filth. I craned my neck to see if Portin was here. Then I turned my head around to see me and him were bound together, the barbed wire forming new scars on our wrists and arms, and now even our legs. It was probably the most miserable part of being here. But at least he was safe. As safe as he could be when he was in here, of course. That's all I cared about right now, was that me and Portin were safe. Suddenly I heard his voice; I suppose he had woken up too.

"Agraina?" He called.

"I'm here." I replied.

"Do you think we're going to be ok?" He sounded very scared, but very brave.

"I don't know; let's just focus on getting out of here. Try and talk to the others. See what they know."

We tried making conversation with the other prisoners, but they wouldn't speak. They kept on shaking their heads, saying no speak, no speak. It was almost as if they had been brainwashed. They weren't scared, and they weren't talking to each other either. In fact, a lot of them were asleep. The place was completely quiet except for the sounds of breathing and me Portin talking. I wanted to get out of here more than anything. The problem was that I simply didn't know how to get out, and if I did, I wouldn't know where to go. There were multiple doors, probably all leading to different places. Lord knew which one might have led directly out, but whichever one did, I wanted to find it. There were lots of other people in the room, and there were a couple guards stationed by each door. As I looked over at them, they caught my glance and started to walk over to me. But as they made their way towards the area where me and Portin sat, they were interrupted by another guard. They walked back over to their station, arguing amongst themselves. They seemed irritated; like someone had told them they weren't allowed to go outside and play. I thought we'd be fine, until they walked over to me and injected me with some sort of sleeping draft.

I don't remember much from then on, until I awoke with a start to find I was in a different room. This time I was chained by my ankles to a wall, and this time, I was alone. I started to panic. Where was Portin? Where was I? I didn't even know where I was, although, I had gotten used to that. I got up and looked through the cell window, frantically trying to get out, frantically trying to find Portin. But he was nowhere, and there were no doors as far as I could see. I wanted out, that's all. Just out. I think I was starting to go mad. I couldn't function, and my vision suddenly worsened. It was at that point that I fell over and collapsed completely.

I awoke to the sound of crying and screaming, and when I opened my eyes I saw people getting dragged out of their cells by the hair, their screams echoing throughout the cell block. Before I knew it there was a hand on my blond hair and I was being dragged away. I didn't know what to do, I wanted to kick whoever was carrying me, but I couldn't lift my leg without pain shooting through my scalp. So I let them drag me.

I was pulled into a large, round room where all I could see was one light, in the middle of the room. Just a candle, and there was a round table on which it stood. I walked in, only to hear chains rattling. There were about 7 other girls, like me, who were being led in. There were about 20 chained to the wall. If the girls could reach the meal placed on the table, they could eat and live on here with proper food and clothing. If they did not, they would be put back in their cell and starved to death. I was attached to one of those chains. I reached my head as far as I could, but I still could not reach the food. I craned my neck, rubbed my hand raw against the chains, but still to no avail. I collapsed, only momentarily, for I was shoved up by one of the guards. I reached again, still not being able to reach the bread. But it was then that I realized I could reach the plate. If I could do that, maybe I could get the food. I pulled myself as far as I could, bit the plate and pulled it towards me. It slid off the table, and shattered as it hit the ground. I grabbed the bread with my teeth, and held it up for the guards to see.

When they unchained me, I ran through the doors screaming Portin's name. Evidently you can choose one other person to be with you. Of course, I'd choose him. I went up to the guard and asked for Portin. He just stared at me blankly.

"You think I know who he is? We have hundreds of you. Some of you go to testing, some of you go to fighting, and some of you play the food game. "When he explained this to me, my entire body nearly shut down. I ran through the rooms, following the signs until they brought me to the room that I was assigned. I opened the door, shot in, and shut it. But as I was gasping for breath, I was startled by a familiar voice. It was Portin's.

"I thought you'd be here soon," he said, with a rasp in his voice. I looked over at him and he was covered in blood, cuts and bruises all up and down his legs, and his face was cut very deeply across his cheek.

"Oh my gosh! What happened to you?" I screamed in horror at the sight of his injury.

"I was beaten, only a little," he replied. "Besides, it doesn't hurt much."

I ran to his side. "Not much? Portin, you're very badly injured. There must be something in this room that can help clean the wounds. I went through the bedroom, then the kitchen, then the bathroom. There were some towels in the bathroom, so I grabbed them and brought them out, along with a rinse cup of water. I found some plastic that had been covering the furniture, laid it on the ground, and helped Portin onto it. I then began to cleanse the wounds he had on him, and not surprisingly put him through a lot of pain. The poor boy, he must have gone through so many traumas. Maybe it wasn't even the wounds that hurt; maybe it was the memories. He almost screamed, but I had to quiet him, because if someone knew I was hiding him, I might get in trouble. Of course, technically I wasn't; they said I could take someone with me. Still, I felt nervous about having him here. I suppose if we lay low, nothing would happen to us.

I ripped off what was left of my jacket and tied it around his legs, so that the bleeding would stop. Then I found a small band-aid in the bathroom for his cheek.

"Why are you helping me, anyway?" Portin inquired. "I'm really not all that special, and we've just met."

I almost started to cry. "I don't know where I am, I don't know why I'm here, and you're the only other person that I can talk to who feels the same way. We're going to get out of here. Together. I promise."

I held his hand for a little bit, feeling its warmth; and then the two of us drifted off to sleep.

We awoke to the sound of knocking on the door.

I heard a voice through the door. "Room service!"

Were my ears defying me? I guess this place was some sort of hotel. A hotel that kidnaps people, which was the interesting bit. I got Portin hidden away in the bedroom, and then went to answer the door. The man at the door didn't appear phased by the fact that I was dirty and bruised, in fact, if my eyes didn't deceive me, there was a big first-aid kit on the bottom shelf of the cart. He pushed it in, left it in the middle of the room, and then walked out. I walked over to the cart and took a look at it. There was enough food for one fat person, but seeing as me and Portin were both starving, this was enough food for an army. I called him in, and we ate the breakfast provided; pancakes with maple syrup and bacon, little coffee cakes with orange juice and milk, and fresh fruit to go along. We ate every last crumb, and after being satisfied, I took a look in the wardrobe, to see what I could wear. There were many things, all of them very pretty, but before I put one on, I told Portin I was getting in the shower. I found some clothes for him, too, and then finally washed my body. The moment I turned on the water I knew for a fact that I was in pure heaven. But there was no way this heaven could last forever.

I tried on a pair of shorts I'd found in the closet, and, pleased to know they fit, kept them on. I also found a pretty satin shirt, loose and comfortable, and pink, the color that I always thought looked best on me. Then I blow-dried my hair, and put it in a French braid in the back of my head. There were earrings, too, but not only did I not want to be bothered with them, but if my ears had been pierced, I've been here so long that the holes have closed up. I came in the living room to find that Portin was already showered and dressed. I guess it took a much longer time for me. His wounds looked a lot cleaner, and so did the rest of him.

"How was your shower?" I asked.

He took a deep, relaxed breath. "Wonderful. Seriously the best thing I've felt in months."

"Well I'm glad you think so," I replied. "Let's see what's going on in the world, shall we?"

I turned on the TV, and all over the news were broadcasts about children going missing everywhere. The reporter seemed terrified. Suddenly my face was on the screen; my parents must have sent a picture in!

"That's you, Agraina!" Portin pointed at the screen.

"I know," I replied. "We really need to get out of here. Maybe there's a phone where we can call my parents. I still remember their phone number, I think."

I rummaged through the place, but there was no phone.

I was disappointed. "Ah, I see, we live here but at a price, no communication. Too bad I won't put up with that."

Portin looked concerned. "You can't just fight off a huge army of people! They'll kill you before you have a chance to do anything!"

"Well that's a risk I'm willing to take," I said. "Come on, we need to make plans."

I pulled out a long sheet of paper that I'd found in the bedroom. I drew out all the places we'd been and where they led to. I drew the weaponry, and the torture rooms, even the one we were in then. Yet it still was random and I didn't know how I would figure out how to use these rooms to get anywhere. Then Portin came up with an idea.

"I'm really good at hacking computers," he explained. "If we could hack through to the cameras, we could see all the rooms, and then figure out how to get out of here."

I laughed. "That's a great plan, Portin, however, we're not just going to get out of here anymore. We're going to help all the people who are being treated just like us. But go ahead and use the computer. Maybe we can hack security and email our parents, let them know we're safe."

Portin grabbed the computer that the hotel provided and got to work. It was a little difficult for him to get past the firewall at first, mainly because the only thing you could really get into was the hotel website, but he did it. Once we were in, we saw all the cameras. There were a few outside the building, which was great because then we could see what it looked like. It wasn't as big as I thought it'd be, and actually, there was something really strange about it.

"Hold on," I took control of the touch pad. "I've seen this building before. It's only a few blocks away from where I live!"

"What?" Now Portin looked really scared. "How can it be? I remember being blindfolded on the drive up. It took me hours to get here!"

I stared at him. "Oh my gosh, you were conscious? I just remember getting here, I was at home, and then I was here. But you probably live farther away than me, right?"

"That must have been terrible, but I think being conscious is worse. They torture you and taunt you. But yeah, I probably do."

"That must have been worse," I replied, concerned.

"It was, but right now we need to focus on some things that are more important."

"You're right. Ok, so, where are there guards stationed?"

We talked it over, watching the cameras and looking at entrances and exits. And for the first time in a long time, I was legitimately having fun. I know it seems strange, making plan to escape a place you don't even know how you got into, but I was laughing happily, and I was shoving Portin around (carefully of course, I didn't want to hurt him), and I was talking. Soon, we ended up lying on the floor, just relaxing. Maybe we didn't have to leave. Maybe we could just stay here, only for a little while. After all, they wouldn't harm us, would they?

"Portin?" my voice sounded loud in the quiet we now had. "Do you know what?"

"What?" he replied.

"I'm having the best time ever."

I wrapped my arms around him, and we just sat there, in a warm embrace. I was so glad to have him as a friend, and I didn't think there was any possible way things could get any better. Although, they could get worse.


	3. Chapter 3

Later that day, after lunch, I opened the laptop to look at the cameras. We had been doing it for a while now, just to check up, see if there was any extra activity going on. When I looked at the screen, I was shocked at what I saw.

"Portin! Come here!" Portin came running in and looked at the same thing I did. The camera that showed the outside showed a different building. None of these buildings were the outside. It was a trick. They knew we were watching the cameras, and they tricked us.

"What are we going to do?" I started to get worried.

"I don't know," Portin said doubtfully. "Pack up, leave?"

"Can't we stay here?" I pleaded.

"Agraina, look," Portin said calmly. "If we don't get out of here, then eventually something is going to happen to us. We need to go now."

I sighed. "Fine," I said angrily.

We started packing our things in a suitcase that we'd found in the wardrobe. I made sure to bring along any weapons that might be useful. Guns, knives, I made sure to get the bow for Portin. Somehow, even after we were taken, our weapons remained with us. Either they were really stupid or they wanted us to have them. Whatever their purpose was, I was glad to still have the weapons with us. As I looked around, I saw something out of the corner of my eye. It looked like a body. I let out a scream so loud maybe my parents could have heard me. Portin came running in from the bedroom.

"What on earth was that for?" he asked, sounding worried.

"I-I…" I paused to take a breath. "I saw someone in here; they were- I don't know, I saw someone!"

Portin took a deep breath and sat me down. "It's alright; you must have just been seeing things. Come on, we've got to keep packing."

He helped me put the rest of the clothes in a suitcase and brought me a cup of coffee from the breakfast station.

"Here," he said. "You must be running on no sleep. It's been a while since you've had some caffeine. Drink this."

I took the coffee and sipped it, relaxing a little bit. I don't know what was happening to me; but whatever it was, I intended to figure it out.

We had just finished packing when there was a knock on the door. I motioned for Portin to run and hide under the bed, and he ran. I went to answer the door, and when I looked through the peephole, I saw the same figure I'd seen before. I stifled my scream, hoping that maybe it was nothing. After taking a deep breath, I opened the door. There was no one there. I looked from one side of the hall to the other, but there was no one. I slammed the door shut once more.

"Portin!" I called. There was no answer. I ran into the bedroom to find there was no one in the room.

"Portin!" I called again, still no answer. I was starting panic-again. He was nowhere to be found, not in this room, no anywhere. I fell on the ground and started to cry. Where had he gone? Suddenly I felt a hand on my shoulder. When I turned around to see who it was, I saw that it was Portin.

"What's wrong, Agraina?" he didn't understand why I was crying, and he looked perfectly healthy. Besides his cuts and bruises, of course.

"I called for you, and you didn't answer. Where were you?"

"I was under the bed. You didn't call for me," he replied. Now I was really confused. What had just happened? Was I imagining things? This put my mind on a tail spin. I had no idea what was going on. Suddenly darkness was closing in. Portin's brown eyes faded from me, and I was unconscious. AGAIN.

When I awoke, I was no longer in the hotel room. I was somewhere else. All the walls were white and there was an unfamiliar woman standing over me.

"You are not well," she said. She sounded very foreign. Possibly Indian? I wasn't sure, but I intended to find out. I tried to get up, but whoever this woman was, she pushed me back down. She seemed like she was worried I'd see something, like maybe she was hiding something.

"You cannot get up. Your condition is too severe."

I didn't get it. "Severe? What do you mean? Where am I?"

"You are in hospital. This boy, he brings you here."

She pointed to the chair in the corner. There sat Portin, waiting patiently. I almost burst into tears, just the sight of him made me want to cry. Come to think of it, I wasn't exactly sure why, though. I held back because I needed to know what was wrong with me.

"You said my condition is severe. What is my condition?"

The woman looked at me strangely."You didn't know? You have experienced several heart attacks, which is very, very unusual at your age. It's also very unhealthy. You need to stay here for a while. We will take care of you. Do not worry."

I worried. There was no doubt I worried. 15 years old and having heart attacks? Nobody I've ever known has had those problems before. Could she have been lying? It was perfectly possible, and you could practically smell the tension in the air. It was like she was waiting for someone to snap and tell me the truth. I didn't know what to say, so I decided to ask a question that was as safe as possible.

"What causes heart attacks?" I asked.

"Many things," the woman replied. "Stress, too much bad food, but in your case, I think it was a sudden shock that caused yours. You see, with the condition your body is in, all that running and torture, your heart couldn't take all the pressure."

"How do you know about the running and torture?" I was beginning to get suspicious. More so than I'd already been.

Portin cut in. "I told her. I thought it might be useful to know you haven't exactly been the healthiest lately." Something sounded strange about him; though I wasn't quite sure what. He sounded… distant. Like, someone had control over what he was saying. The woman started to speak again.

"Do not worry," she said. "We will take care of everything." I didn't believe her. Or Portin, for that matter. Something was wrong. But what? I needed to find out. I wanted to search the room, try and get them to leave so I could do so. But first, I needed to recover.

It had been a few days since I had been awake last, and in those few days a lot had happened. Portin told me stories of how the men came in looking for Agraina Loftkin, and how he told them she wasn't here, she was somewhere else, and that they believed him; he told me of when the food had all gone bad from someone leaving the fridge open and their head being hung in the door. I couldn't believe my ears; this was the 21st century and people were being beheaded! It was savage! I tried asking him more, but then he acted all strange, like there wasn't anything wrong and I didn't need to know any more. But I did need to know more! He needed to answer. But the more I pressed, the less he said, so I decided to leave it alone. I went back to sleep a few minutes later.210

I awoke with a start when I heard Portin coughing and gasping for breath, sayings "please no, please, stop it" over and over again. I immediately jumped out of bed and ran to his side.

"Portin what's wrong?" I asked frantically, hoping for an answer.

"Listen, you have to help me," he grasped my arm and gripped it tightly. "They're trying to hurt me. I have to lie to you, all the time, I can't do it, I-" he was interrupted by a fit of coughing, and he started to choke. I started crying, I didn't know what to do. No one came to help, and I was starting to worry, I didn't think he'd make it. He kept on coughing and coughing, and then, it stopped. He collapsed. He started breathing again. I relaxed a little, and then I brought him in my bed and slept on the couch. When I awoke, he was back to normal. I started to relax a bit, and the only reason I'd gotten sleep last night was because I was exhausted. I got out of bed, slipped on a shirt, and peeped out of the room. When I looked down the halls, the only thing I saw was the same hallways as the hotels. This room was only made to look like a hospital room, but it wasn't one. Were those really heart attacks? Had I even been ill this entire time?

When I came back into the room, everything was different. There were no beds, it looked just like the room we'd been staying in before! And Portin was gone. Again. How many times? I searched the whole room, and found him sleeping in the living room couch. I released a sigh. He was alright. I went back into the hall. As I walked through it, the floor pattern changed. And then the walls shifted. Before I knew it, I was in a completely different room. It was large, and it had many doors around it. Right in the middle, there was a pattern on the floor. It was in the shape of a dove, a white one, and it was just about to take flight. It was pretty, but I didn't quite understand why it was there. I walked over and touched it; and when I did, it flew off. I followed it as far as I could, but I could not reach it. It was a beautiful dove, white as snow and pure, but it had red eyes that pierced through my soul, or so it felt like. I turned around and the room changed again; this time it was a small room, with little red lights strung about it. There was a little table, and a small bed. There was a child lying in the bed, very small, I'd say about 5 or 6 years old. She was sleeping very peacefully. Then she turned to smoke and disappeared. I looked around, then opened the door and walked back down the halls. I ran into Portin. He seemed worried, but it didn't surprise me at all. I mean, we had been separated so many times now. I wasn't sure, but I thought I saw irritation on his face as well.

"Where have you been?" He exclaimed. "I've been looking everywhere for you!"

"You were asleep," I told him. "You were in the hospital room, and then it changed to a hotel room. You were asleep on the couch and I left, and you were gone. So where were you?"

He looked at me and yawned. "I was asleep; like you said. I woke up and you weren't there, so I got up. That's when the room changed for me."

"What did your rooms look like?" I asked.

"Well," he replied. "There was a gun training room, and a cave, Oh! And some sort of hut? Anyway, it was really weird. What about you?"

"I saw a room with a dove on the floor. Then it flew away. And then I was in this- this sort of hut as well. Did yours have a sleeping little girl in it too?"

"Yes! It did! Did she vanish into smoke?"

"Yes! Does this mean we were in the same room?"

"I don't know, but I think there might be two different versions of these rooms, maybe more, running parallel to each other. We should probably find out. Come on, let's split up."

"Wait!" I interrupted him. "We shouldn't. We might end up separated forever. I don't want that."

"Fine," he replied. "We'll go together. But we need to work quickly. I don't think it would end well if someone found us."

"Ok. Let's go." I grabbed the gun from pocket and we set off, through a million shape-shifting rooms, all stretching and changing as we ran through them. Suddenly there was one that caught my eye. It was a hallway that looked very familiar. I grabbed Portin's arm and led him in with me. There was a door that had stickers all over it. The stickers read "Alana's Room KEEP OUT" In colorful text. I stared at it. I opened the door, and inside was my old bed, along with my dresser and closet. There was the little window seat I spent hours reading in. I sat down and looked around the room where all the memories stayed. There was the balcony I snuck off of, there were all the books and movies I had saved, I had read them and watched them over and over again; never wanting to put them down. There was the little nick in the wall where I had bumped my chair into it. I ran my fingers over it. With a nostalgic sigh, I decided to explore some other spots. When I left the hallway, there was the kitchen I raided food from all the time. I felt tears begin to stream down my face. Embarrassed, I wiped them away as quickly as I could. It was too late. Portin noticed.

"Is this-is this your house?" He asked. I knew he meant well, but it just made things was worse. I burst into tears and collapsed on the floor. He just stood there looking at me. I didn't blame him for not knowing what to do; it's not very often that he's around bawling girls. So I tried to suck it up. I got up, started drying my tears, and finally I started speaking.

"Yes," I said, my voice cracking a little. "Yes, this is my house. It just reminded me of back when I was home. It just made me sad that it was empty. I'm sorry for bursting out like that; I didn't want to make you uncomfortable."

Portin looked at me. He seemed relaxed. "It's fine. I would have done the same thing if it was my house."

At that very moment the house changed to another house. I assumed it was Portin's, but I didn't want to traumatize him.

"Come on, we have to get out of here!" I grabbed his arm and pulled him out the front door. We ran through room after room until we were far away from that house. As we caught our breath, I looked over and saw something. It was shining. I picked it up, and saw that it was my pin, from when I was younger. I'd wear it at parties. It was so beautiful. Sometimes, I would curl my hair, pull it back, and pin it with this exact pin. But I was always sad because no one told me I looked beautiful in it. So I put it in a case and locked it in my dresser drawer. I hid the key, and it never saw the light of day again. I turned it over it my hands, inspecting it; looking at the shimmer it produced. I loved that pin once, and now? Now I hated it. I threw it to the ground and looked at Portin.

"Let's go," I said. We ran through the rooms once more, and suddenly, it shifted back into the halls. Some men walked in with a kid wrapped tightly in their grasp. I stood there, stunned until Portin grabbed my arm and yanked my behind a wall. My whole face grew red with anger, and hot tears sprang from my eyes.

"We have to set her free!" I practically growled the words out.

"No," Portin said. "We would kill ourselves. I can't have that."

I felt my whole body start to shut down. "I- I don't care if I die. My life doesn't matter anymore."

Portin let a tear fall from his own face. "It matters to me," he said. "Agraina, I can't lose you. Now come on, let's get out of here."

He led me through halls and doors until we reached an exit. I recalled everything that I could remember in that moment. The running from place to place, how quickly everything had happened; it had all been a blur to me. When we walked out those doors, I thought it would all be over. Little did I know that it was just beginning…

We walked outside the doors, and as I looked around, all I saw were rocks. Rocks stacked up so high you couldn't see anything. Only the sky, which had turned a horrid red. Deep and dark, like the color of blood. I looked around, and all I could see was darkness. There were men and women picking food out of the ground, like I knew how it got there and where it came from. Which I didn't. I went up to a woman who had dug a few chunks of bread out of the ground. She looked up at I approached.

"Excuse me ma'am, but what's going on?" I asked, trying to sound as polite as possible.

"What's going on?" The woman asked. She seeming shocked I even spoke to her at all. "The world is gone! We are refugees, digging whatever is left out of the ground! Where have you been?"

"Nowhere, I've been in that building," I replied.

The woman stared at me, now more concerned than ever. "In there?" She pointed to the building behind me, just as it shifted into a small cottage. I couldn't believe what I had just seen. Was it possible? Or was my mind just playing tricks on me? I had gone through a lot. I turned back to the woman, only to see she had gone. Now I was very confused. More so than I already was? Probably, yes. I looked all around the small cottage only to find that other than Portin, I was completely alone. Then I turned around to see Portin. He was looking at me strangely. But in a way, I liked the way he looked. Before I knew it, his arms were wrapped around me. It was just a hug, but it certainly felt nice. After the embrace, I turned my head to see the cottage was now a skyscraper. I couldn't even get a hold on what was going on here. My body started to get to me, like I couldn't control myself. Yet again, everything was fading and I lost consciousness.


	4. Chapter 4

When I awoke, I realized I was still in the same place that I passed out. Not surprisingly, Portin was right there, hanging over me. Actually, he was smacking me in the face. I immediately shot up, slightly irritated but at the same time grateful for his violent way of waking me up. I didn't know he had that in him, that violent way of reviving someone. He had always seemed like a really sweet person, but I suppose not. Maybe it was the traumatizing experience of everything that had happened that had caused him to get so attached to people. I guess this attachment just wore off after a while. Or maybe…I had never really picked up on the problem that he had been having earlier. What was that? Someone had gotten control over his brain, they had been making him say things that he didn't want to, and he was fighting it for a long time; only now I wasn't sure if he'd fought it off or if it had taken complete control. I didn't have time to deal with it at that moment, though, so I changed the subject.

"How long have I been out?" I grumbled, feeling like I hadn't slept for years.

"He looked down at me. "Only a few minutes. I woke you up almost as soon as you fell asleep. Namely because of that." He pointed at a large ship just over head. It was monstrous, and the last thing I needed was to be right underneath it. I grabbed Portin's hand, and after letting out an enormous scream, ran as quickly as I possibly could. The ship picked up speed, flying the other direction. I didn't realize why until we were standing in the middle of a cloud of smoke. It was gas. I screamed yet again and we ran the other direction, as so not to get gassed. But the cloud was moving faster than we were, and I didn't know if this gas was fatal or not, so I couldn't afford to breathe it in. I pulled the collar of my shirt up over my mouth and motioned for Portin to do the same. We ran behind one of the rocks, coughing and gasping for breath, but the more we breathed in, the worse we felt. Finally, I decided we needed to leave. Now. If we didn't, we would die. Already I felt whatever food I'd eaten before coming up. I gulped it down just in time to say something to Portin.

"We need to find a better hiding spot!" Already I found myself choking and gagging once more. I looked around, desperately trying to find a place to hide, but this area was practically a field! There was nothing out there. Nothing. I whirled around, trying to find something, just something that could work to our advantage. That's when I saw it. Black and smoking, but it was still there. Shelter. I ran towards it, pulling Portin, who was lagging behind. That's when it shifted into something else. I had just turned to the shape shifting building. So that left me with two choices; either die out here in the smoke and gas, or die in there after being caught. It was then I realized it really didn't matter. I didn't have any idea how long I'd been in that building. Or how old I was. Or even where I was. This couldn't be Earth, could it? If so, how long has it been since things were normal? I tried to brush the thought aside, but I couldn't. And now it wasn't the gas that was killing me, it was the thought in my head that there was no hope for humanity. And that is what really disappointed me. Despite my lack of talent, I was pretty sure of whom I was, for practically my whole life. After all, why shouldn't I? But now, at the moment where I needed to remember it most, I'd forgotten who I was and why I was here. And that was when I realized it. I had been unconscious for a while, because I awoke to find Portin standing over me. I could hear him saying something about the gas leaving, but I didn't quite understand it. That's when I started to feel the stinging in my eyes. So it was teargas that had been sprayed everywhere. Teargas that sent me running. Obviously I hadn't been exposed to for too long, otherwise I'd be blinded. I sat up and looked around. We were still outside. Strangely enough, everything had cleared. Everything except the building, of course. And the diggers, still positioned at their posts, digging though the ground.

It was a long time before I realized that there was nothing left in the ground, yet they were still digging. I went up to the same woman I spoke to before, and tapped her shoulder. She turned around calmly, but when I saw her face, it was heavily disfigured. Burns and scars covered the face that once looked at me with terrified eyes. Seeing this, I wondered if I was hallucinating. But I didn't feel different. I was scared of the face, of course, but I was in my right mind. That left only one explanation. She had somehow gotten burned. By the gas? No, it was teargas. All these thoughts flashed through my mind before I let out a scream of fear. I couldn't believe what was happening. Was any of this even real? It had to be. Then I started to remember things. Like how when I was really little people got this disease where they'd be fine, but the then the next minute, their face would dissolve into a burnt mess, much like the one I had just seen. A few days later, a brilliant scientist came up with a cure, but we didn't know about it until many people had died from the infection. Despite his discovery, he was put in prison for withholding important information. I remember the way he looked, how my older sister always said she was going to marry him. She-my older sister! I had completely forgotten I'd even had an older sister before now. She had always teased me about my hair, because for some reason she hated people with blonde hair. Not for the normal stereotypical reason, but because she though they looked really pale with it. It didn't ever make much sense to me, especially because I've always been a relatively tan person. Of course, her hair was black as night, and her skin was really pale. She burned easily, and she was very skinny, which was very different from my tall, stocky build. We got along alright, I guess, but when in public people probably thought we hated each other. Honestly, I did hate going places, so it made sense that I was rude to her. None the less, she still was rude to me as well. I suppose that's because I embarrassed her. Oh well, right? That's what little sisters are for. She taught me a lot, too. Like how to get over things quickly, be very insensitive, and how to be one of the most obnoxious, rude people in the universe. Although part of that was me. It's just who I am, I'm not the kind of person who will keep on talking to someone I dislike just to be nice. In fact, if I dislike someone, I usually make it very obvious. I always have. It's just part of my personality. I doubt anyone considers that to be a good trait in someone, but I suppose it really doesn't matter. At least to me, the rest of my family hated my personality! I just wish I could meet someone who understood that. I highly doubt Portin would, he's so much nicer than me. And as for anyone else I know, they're probably dead anyway. So there's that. I turned around to look and see where Portin had gone. I'd spent so much time thinking I suppose I sort of forgot myself. In a way, it's a good thing, in this situation, not so much. He was over by a rock, rolling something between his thumb and pointer finger. I didn't know what it was, so I went over to find out. When I got closer, I realized the object was smaller than I thought. I tapped his shoulder.

"Portin?" he seemed a little distracted, so I called out a few more times. "Come on, Portin, answer me. What do you have?"

He turned around and showed me what he's been looking at. "I don't know exactly what it is. I think it's some sort piece of jewelry that was melted down from the heat." It was very hot here. I have no idea why, maybe the atmosphere had been heated up from something. But what? I sure wish I knew. Unfortunately, I did not. I looked around again, seeing if there was anything I could do. But we were completely encased by a tall rock structure. That's when I saw a small doorway in the bottom of the rock. I made my way towards it, and then, remembering that Portin was still over inspecting the small silver lump, I called him over.

"Look what I found," I said cheerfully. Well, as cheerful as one can be when their life is being or has been destroyed. Portin looked over at me. Was it concern that I read on his face? I didn't know for sure, so I decided to just shrug it off.

"Do you think it leads outside the rock?" He asked.

"Possibly, but we'll have to find out. And there's only one way to do that. We have to go through," I told him. We walked through it; and we were soon surrounded by stone. The ceilings were pretty high for it being a tunnel, and the walls were cold and rough to the touch. There were a few torches along the walls to keep it lit, but other than that, the tunnels were completely dark. It seemed to stretch on forever, each twist and turn becoming more and more confusing. There were fewer torches than there were before, so the lighting became very dim. I ended up running my fingers along the wall to make sure we were still going through the tunnels and we hadn't ended up in some cavern. After everything, walking through a dark tunnel was actually relaxing. We weren't running from anything, and we weren't doing any life threatening feats. Thank God, if I didn't get this walk I think I might have gone completely insane. It's sort of like a day I had recently remembered. My parents had gotten into a huge argument, and my sister was trying to get them to stop. She wasn't doing a very good job of it, and my brother – oh, I had a brother! – had just burst into tears because he thought they were going to split up. I was completely fed up because of all of it, so I decided to get out. My bedroom had a door that led to a balcony. I wasn't supposed to go out on it, because it was old and the wood had given way in some spots. I was always a heavy person; so naturally, they thought I'd break it. But the beams that supported the rotted wood were still fine, so I took some stuff from my room and laid them over the beams. I used those and a safety ladder that no one used or noticed was missing, and created a sort of secret escape place. None of my parents knew about it because the side of our house that the balcony was on was so covered by shrubbery and it was so close to the other house that you could barely walk. Except I had created a sort of secret path through it so I could leave whenever I wanted. With them all fighting like this, they wouldn't notice if I'd slipped off. So I snuck off to my room, opened the door to the balcony and slipped quietly down the ladder. Once I was on the sidewalk, I just started walking. As I walked, I started to relax and feel better about life in general. I walked through our neighborhood, past all the houses, and eventually found myself in one of the parks. Walking to it would probably take you a good two hours, so I guess time had flown by pretty quickly, especially because I didn't really know where I was going. When I got there, I just sat on a swing and thought. If you've ever tried it, it really is a nice thing to do. Just sit and be alone with your thoughts. After a good deal of thinking, I realized that I really wasn't happy when I was with my family. I thought if I could leave them I would be happier. I almost got up and started on my way when I realized that there wasn't that much for me anywhere but home. So I decided to head back. I didn't even look at any road signs; I just kind of let my feet take me back home. I had locked my door so no one could get back in, so when I got back, I heard pounding on my door. Of course, they argue and cause drama and suddenly they wonder why on Earth I would leave to my room. I climbed up the ladder, and when I carefully opened the door, the pounding continued. The voice of the person behind the door was my mother's.

When I finally opened the door to let her in, she started to scream at me. Asking why I hadn't answered the door, where was I, I needed to tell them where I was going, and that I missed dinner. Honestly, I wasn't even hungry, so it didn't matter. Finally, I shut the door in her face and locked it again. I laid down on my bed as I heard her threats.

"I'll take away your iPod! I'll not give you breakfast! You better get out here right now!" She shouted and shouted and finally I just put my ear buds in and turned on my ignore switch. She was still screaming when I drifted off to sleep. The only reason I hadn't said anything to her the whole time wasn't because I was angry, it was because I was too relaxed to care. Just like now. We reached an area where there were two different tunnels. My feet automatically chose a path and I found myself setting my eyes on daylight. There were maybe two or three trees, and there was a little bit of grass growing here and there. The sky was still a bright red, but the heat wasn't as bad. My only question now was where is the food and water? I hadn't realized how tired I was until I found myself collapsing against a rock, my throat dry from lack of water. I saw Portin doing the same not far from me. He reminded me a bit of my brother. I remember one time we went to the zoo and it took us a lot of walking to get where we needed to go. He whined and complained the entire time, and when we got back to the car he sat dramatically down on his seat and let out the most ridiculous sigh I've ever heard. My parents bought him a bottle of water and he gulped the entire thing down in less than a minute. He was 5 at the time, so that was a pretty big accomplishment. When we got home, he was asleep, so my father had to carry him in to the house. I remember it quite well, it was a fond memory to have. Although he looked a whole lot cuter when sleeping then Portin did. His mouth had dropped open and drool was slowly slipping out of it. I turned away from his face in disgust when my eyes found a small round metal plate stuck into the ground. I woke Portin and we went over to it. There was a handle on the top. Perfect. I wrapped my fingers around it and pulled. It gave way, and when I looked down, I saw a relatively long ladder that went down into…something. With no fear of heights, but slight claustrophobia, I told Portin to follow me down into this hole. Who knows? Maybe there's some sort of refugee camp in it. I started to climb down, my hand gripping each wrung as tightly as I could, and slowly becoming short of breath, simply because of how deep underground I was going. When I finally felt my feet touch the ground, I looked around to see capsules that stretched on and on and on. There was a desk, and the person behind it looked at us in shock.

"Can – can I help you?" he asked, seeming concerned that we were here. I walked over and looked up at him. He was tall, with hazel eyes and dirty blond hair. He had a bit of stubble on his chin, and he wasn't wearing a clean shirt.

"Um, what exactly is this place?" I inquired.

The man replied, "This is the sleeping bunker. Each person gets on single capsule. All it has is a bed, no place to store things, you'll have to go to the locker building to do that. Do you want to reserve a capsule?"

I thought a bit. "Sure," I told him.

He looked over at Portin. "Him too?"

"Ya," I told him.

"Ok, $108.56." he replied. I didn't realize it cost money. But how did anyone have money now? I thought whatever was left of Earth wouldn't include money. I guess it did. Or maybe there was a new currency.

"Excuse me?" It was all I could get out.

"Miss, it costs one hundred and eight dollars and fifty-six cents to reserve two capsules. Would you like to reserve them?" His reply seemed a bit irritated.

I replied, "No! I don't have any money. How is there money? Haven't you been outside lately? The entire Earth is gone!"

He looked a bit confused. "Miss, we know that the atmosphere has been slightly disturbed, but other than that, everything is fine."

Now I was just getting mad. "No! You're lying!" I shouted angrily. "This woman, she-she told me the world was gone! I don't understand!" I heard him calling someone and soon I felt a shot inject into my skin, and as it seeped through my veins, I felt reality slowly disappear.

When I awoke, I was in the same place as before, but tied to the ground. Great, just as soon as my wrists had started to heal from my captivity earlier, I started to get rope burn. And it was already pretty severe. Instead of being scared, however, I was irritated. I guess I did freak out a little, but it's not enough to tie me up. I saw the same man, with those hazel eyes. He was sitting behind his desk again, and when he finally realized I was awake, he came over. Just as soon as Portin started to wake up too. It was at that point that I was even more irritated before. The man untied us and began to speak.

"Hello," he said. "Sorry about the sleep medication, we just needed you to calm down. Since you've already seen what was outside this bunker, we might as well tell you. Yes, the world is gone. But not in the way that woman told you. The atmosphere has been destroyed by a severe pollution cloud that was created from a factory producing a new kind of plastic. We were promised that it was safe for the environment, but obviously, we'd been lied to. Then when we saw the sky slowly turn red, scientists from a secret organization came out of the shadows and told everyone to bury everything underground. Pretty soon, there won't be any oxygen left and we will suffocate. So we are gathering as much vegetation as possible and storing it underground. That way, we can produce oxygen after we lose it on the surface. We're still working on it, though. A lot of us are worried that there isn't enough time, but I hope there is. Did you know about any of this?"

"No," I replied. "Do you know about anyone in Florida who survived?"

"I'm sorry," he said. "But Florida is part of the south. Their oxygen went out weeks ago. Florida's gone."


	5. Chapter 5

I nearly choked on my own throat. I was stunned. All those memories hurt now. All the times I snuck out of the house because I was sick of my family, I regretted all of them. Suddenly I thought of my brother and sister, them suffocating slowly, gasping for air and trying to survive. My parents wondering where I was, and frantically trying to save the children they still had. I didn't cry, I didn't scream, I didn't feel anything.

"Ok," I managed to push out. I felt like I couldn't breathe. I found myself gasping for breath. Maybe it was claustrophobia. No, anxiety. I ran to the ladder and started to climb it. Up and up I went; trying desperately to breathe. Memories flashed into my head, of all the times me and my siblings had snuck food and other things when my parents left, of the birthday parties, and even the arguments. The arguments which I always hated seemed like a good memory to me now. They were all I had left to hold to on to, all that was left of my family. My palms started to get sweaty, and as I soaked the handle bars with them, climbing up got harder and harder. When I got to the top and shoved open the hatch, I realized just how hard I had been panting. I saw Portin coming up after me. I ran and hid behind a tree, hoping he wouldn't see me. When he got up, he started calling my name. Now I felt bad for him, too, so I walked out from behind the tree in which I had hidden behind. That's when I completely lost it. I collapsed into a fit of tears that I couldn't stop. I was sobbing and sobbing, inconsolable even by Portin. I started and choke and then eventually threw up all over the ground, convulsing because my sobs jerked my body so hard. Finally Portin had to get control over me. He grabbed my arm tightly and forced me to stand up. He was surprisingly strong for his small build. He grabbed my other arm and pulled me in towards his face. The shock of this caused my convulsing and tears to stop suddenly. Then he started talking. I guess this was his plan.

"Agraina, listen. You need to pull yourself together. Like, now. I understand you've just lost a lot and it's a big shock, but I need you in your right mind. I don't know where we are or what's going on, so you have got to do this with me. Ok? Can you do that?"

I couldn't say anything, so I just nodded.

"Come here," he said, wrapping his arms around me. His embrace felt wonderful, and I found myself crying again, but not as badly. I just let the tears fall silently as he kept whispering "it's ok, it's ok" into my ear. Obviously it wasn't, everything I'd ever known was gone, but at least it made me feel better. When I'd finally calmed down, we went back down. After all, we have a lot more questions to ask and I needed answers. More answers about Florida, of course. We made our way back down the ladder, and our hands slowly became sticky from the sweat that had dried from my hands. As we went down, I thought of my house. When you walked in, the kitchen was right there. There was an island, and the counter wrapped around ¾ of the kitchen. There was a breakfast bar in a little nook by the stairs. The stairs weren't very many. There were only two, and they boosted you up to the hall and living room. The hall was on the left, the living room on the right. Down the hall were the bedrooms, and the bathroom. The wall directly to the left of the living room had a staircase that led down to basement, where we spent most of our time in during the summer, since it was so hot. The backyard wasn't very big, because we were very close to other houses. It was big enough for a pool, though, which was nice. I loved it, I always had. But I needed a reality check. I wasn't there anymore, and I certainly wouldn't be for a long time, if ever at all. So I left the memory there.

We got to the bottom of the ladder and Portin worked out how we would stay here. We would help them with whatever they needed, and they would give us each a capsule. It seemed like a pretty good deal, especially because we got fed. Evidently there was only one floor, because the air above wasn't too bad and the trap door at the top could seal out air, so if we needed to, we could stop it from polluting the capsules. They weren't very prepared in my opinion, but I suppose I didn't really have much of a say in that. I went over to mine and just laid there. I think I might have started to cry again, and it wouldn't surprise me if I did, but it wasn't the only thing I did. I found myself so deeply lost in thought that at one point, I actually thought I was back home. Then I blinked and found myself once again in the capsule. I suppose I'd thought too hard, because the tears started again and before I knew it I had cried myself to sleep.

When I woke up, there were people milling about in the hall, most of climbed up and out and I got Portin and followed them. We talked for a little bit, and I realized I had never asked where he came from.

"Hey Portin," I said. "What state did you live in?"

He hung his head. "Florida," he replied. I was shocked. The whole time, the person who I'd had gone through this whole thing with had coincidentally been in the same state as me the entire time. How ridiculous is that? At the same time I felt bad for him because I knew that meant his state was gone. Why? Because it was the same state as mine.

"I'm sorry," I told him. I didn't know what to say to him; I have no idea how he handled my convulsions and endless tears with such a calm attitude. It seemed impossible to me, but I suppose that's because I've never been good with that sort of thing. Whenever someone is sad or angry, I stand awkwardly in the corner until it fades. I just can't handle it. I looked back over at Portin, who wasn't crying, or really that sad in general. Either he was a good actor or he just really wasn't feeling anything. I started to feel a little nervous. I wasn't really sure what about, I just felt nervous. I knew there could have been so many worse things, but this, this was pretty bad. I guess I should have felt nervous. I looked over at Portin again. He seemed so relaxed, like nothing was wrong. Maybe he was in shock like I was when I first heard. But no, he had heard the news at the same time that I had. So what was it? Suddenly I remembered the hospital, when he was coughing and gasping for breath because he couldn't control what he was saying. I had never really asked him about that. Why hadn't I? No time, too many distractions, maybe, but still, I should have mentioned it. What if he was still in this state? And even if he wasn't, why else would he be acting like this? I needed answers, and I needed them quickly. So I decided to go for it.

"Portin, what is wrong with you?" I blurted out. It did not go as I intended it to. He looked over at me calmly, and almost like a robot, said, "There isn't anything wrong with me. I'm quite alright." Now I was really starting to panic.

"Are you sure about that?" I asked. "Don't you remember the hospital; you were gasping for breath and begging me to help you?"

He looked at me once more, and then he let out a laugh. "Wake up, Agraina, that never happened," was all he told me. _Wake up, Agraina. _What's that supposed to mean? I tried to shrug it off, but it wasn't an easy thing to do. The memories were so clear, so vivid that I couldn't have just dreamt it!

"You're lying!" I screamed. "You're just lying! What is taking over you that is making you like this! It's not fair! Just stop it!" At that point I had resorted to punching and scratching him, not even realizing that he was no longer breathing. I suppose I was so caught up in the fact that I hated him at that moment that I couldn't focus on anything else. By the time I had realized what was going on, Portin's heart had stopped. He was dead.


	6. Chapter 6

I don't know what helped me stay sane without Portin, but somehow, I managed to calmly bring him back down to the capsule hotel. According to man who owned it, they took the idea off of a hotel in Tokyo. Since Tokyo was such a crowded city, there was a hotel there with capsules in it. Each person would get a capsule and that's what they would stay in. It really was a neat idea, so they decided to replicate it underground. It wasn't really that nice, but when you have nothing left, it's definitely somewhere to go.

As I laid Portin down on the ground, showing him to the man at the desk, I saw the look on his face. He was so concerned; you'd think he was really close to Portin.

"What happened?" he asked quietly.

I felt a tear run down my cheek. "It was my fault," I managed to choke out. "I think something was wrong with him, and I got angry at him. I thought he was lying to me. But I don't think he was and - and now he's dead!"

"Don't worry," the man said. "He'll be fine. After all he…" his voice trailed off as he started to fade away completely. With him, the room faded. Everything around me started to fade until I found myself on the ground again. The tunnel was still there, I remembered walking through it just a day ago with Portin where we'd found the capsule hotel. But the trees and the grass were gone. I ran frantically, trying to find a way to bring him back. But I couldn't. There was no bringing him back. But why on Earth did everything fade once Portin died? I never did hear the name of the man who owned it. Now I wish I had. Maybe I could have gotten more answers.

"It's all my fault! It's all my fault!" I screamed over and over, thinking maybe if I could have controlled myself, none of this would have happened. But it already did. No changing it, no redoing it, it was done. I suppose I had been speaking out loud because the voice of someone else startled me.

"No redoing it, huh? Well that doesn't sound very optimistic, now does it?" the voice was that of a man's. I turned around and instantly knew that I didn't recognize this man.

"Who are you?" I demanded. "Where did you come from?"

"Good question," he replied. "What are your opinions on time travel?"

I looked at him quizzically. "It's not real," I told him.

"Fact or opinion?" he asked.

"Fact," I replied.

"No," he said. "Opinion. Time travel has not only been possible in dreams for a long time, but it has been possibly in reality for a while as well. What you have just seen is an example of time travel."

I was really confused now. "What do mean, an example? Why did that man disappear? People don't just do that!"

"Ah," he replied. "That's where you definitely got it! People don't just disappear. But think about it. If you were to travel back and cross your own timeline, but the younger you died while you were visiting, what would happen?"

"You would…fade," I said, not quite realizing that the owner of the capsule hotel was Portin, just his future self. As the shock settled over my face, the man laughed. This time I would be sure to get names. So I decided to ask him.

"Oh my name? I'm Professor Jordan, of the Institute Involving Time Travel. We call it I.T. Squared for short. We've been working on hundreds of different ways to travel through time. We've developed quite a few, including travel by wire, by ship, and over three thousand ways through being unconscious. If you want to go back and undo the wrong you made, now is the time." Everything he said actually made quite a bit of sense, so I decided that maybe I would follow him. But how could I trust him? Honestly, I couldn't. Either way, even though I've always been extremely skeptical about time travel and relatively any type of science fiction, there was something about time travel that enticed me, especially because it meant that I might be able to see Portin again. So I decided to follow him. He walked up to a certain spot in the barren wasteland that was once a meadow, and motioned for me to join him.

"Now," he began to explain, "What is going to happen is you are going to stand in this very spot, and I will activate a teleportation that will bring you to where you need to go. Are you ready?"

I waited a moment, butterflies in my stomach. Then I decided. Again. Officially. "Yes, I'm ready," I replied steadily. Suddenly I felt my whole body being pulled around and when I opened my eyes, I was in a building that seemed strangely familiar. Then I looked down a hallway. It was the shape shifting building. I was back in that God forsaken building. I was interrupted by Professor Jordan.

"I have a question for you," he said calmly. "Did the man who faded ever touch your friend?"

"Depends on your definition of touching," I retorted.

With a short laugh, he got to the explanation. "Well you see, touching your future or past self can create a paradox, or wound in time. When that paradox is created, you or other parts in your timeline can be corrupted or destroyed completely. If there was never any contact between Portin and well- possibly also Portin, that means that they are indeed the same person."

It took a little bit of thought to process this. It kind of reminded me of a time in history class where there was a big argument over time travel. One of the kids argued that there was no possible way time travel could be real. The other kid said that there was easily hundreds of ways it was real. Of course each person ended up taking a side and I think we spent the rest of our school day arguing over it. Of course I took the logical side of things, I just usually did. The teacher cut in and told us that although it may one day be possible, right now time travel is way out of our league. I didn't agree with him totally, but it ended the argument, so we were all satisfied at least.

If both the people in the capsule hotel were Portin, what could that mean for me? I understood the concept well enough, but I didn't understand another thing; they didn't exactly look alike. Maybe he changed as he grew older, but if he did, I don't think I'd be happy about it. Although what I think doesn't exactly matter, does it? I suppose I would find out. My thoughts were interrupted by Professor Jordan.

"You alright, Agraina? I know it's a lot to take in," he said.

"Fine," I replied. "A little confused, though."

He looked over calmly. "I know, I know, just wait. We will need to hook you up to one of our machines. We'll send you back to where you need to go. Remember, you've only got one chance. One chance, and that's it."

I took a deep breath. "Okay," I said, failing miserably to sound calm. I walked behind Professor Jordan; through the halls that seemed to never end. I looked at the locked doors and remembered that once upon a time I was behind one of them. I remembered how it felt, the pain and the blood, how I shook and shook in fear, waiting for reality to leave; waiting to die. I wondered if there were still people there, if they were still being tortured, still being forced to fight. I thought of the boys I saw, beating each other until one of them was dead or gave up. But what I didn't understand was how the Professor could walk past these halls calmly, without thinking of any of this. It was like he simply didn't care or notice the fact that behind each door was someone who was slowly starving, slowly dying. Or maybe he did notice. Maybe he could mask his feelings, keep them hidden away from those around him. I suppose I wasn't very good at that, because I saw Jordan stop and walk over to me.

"Are you sure you're alright?" he seemed to repeat this question a lot. I guess it was because time travel is a very difficult thing to believe in. The thought of jumping on and off at different points in time confused me so much. I've read a couple books about it before, all them being science fiction, but I still didn't get it. I was never really into it anyway, so I guess it didn't matter. Until now, of course. If I didn't understand it, what would I say? Oh, I'm sorry, but I don't understand the thing you've probably spent your entire life fascinated by? I wasn't ready to give him my honest opinion yet, so I just decided to go with the polite reply.

"Yeah," I said. "It's just been a little stressful, what with the world ending and everything." He laughed. I suppose I didn't see how that was funny until after I said it. I ended up laughing with him, I guess it was funny after all, wasn't it? I didn't even realize I had a sense of humor up until now, probably because of everything I'd gone through in the past- in the past what? I had no idea how long I'd been in that building, let alone how long I'd been trying to get out. It couldn't be in the past few days, could it have? I suppose it had been about a week since I'd found Portin and gotten out, but that didn't change the fact that time had sort of just slipped away. It's almost like I had gone into a coma, like nothing was quite real. But it was. My mind was going through it right now. How couldn't it be real? I thought of all the times that I had missed Portin, how I felt, what it was like. It wasn't a happy feeling; having to wonder wear in the world he was, despite the fact that there really wasn't much left of the world. I didn't know it then, of course. I thought that there was a whole lot left. I thought my parents, my siblings, everyone, they were still alive. But no. Everyone I'd ever known, they were all gone. I had thought of it before, of course, when I first heard; when Portin was there to comfort me. But now, even he was gone. Maybe not forever, but long enough for me. I needed him back. This was why I needed to get control over myself and take care of this mess. Professor Jordan said I had one chance. I suppose, if I had one chance, I should take it, I should use it for the better. So I did, I walked a few blocks further down the halls, and we stepped into a room. It was relatively large, with some sort of contraption in the middle. It was surrounded by wires and in the center, there was a machine. It had about five pumps, all moving up and down, and each one had a clock on it. The clocks just spun and spun and spun, and as they did, the strange cylinder shape that the pumps surrounded began to swell and then contract. This pattern repeated over and over, and as it did, you could hear voices, like those of a thousand people. I walked over to it, and as I did I felt a hand grip my shoulder.

"I wouldn't go near that while it's turned on," rang Jordan's voice.

I looked at Jordan, then back at the contraption. "Is that the… the machine?" I asked.

"Sure is," he replied. "I developed it myself. What did you expect? Some big spaceship ready to fly through thin air?"

I blushed. "Well actually, yes," I said, trying to sound calm. I suppose he saw the embarrassment on my face, because he started laughing again.

"Listen," he said. "I know what it's like; getting used to all this. I had to once, a long, long time ago. But you'll get used to it eventually, and when you do, make sure you help your friend Portin do the same."

"You're sure I'll get him back?" I asked.

"I know," he said. "I watched it happen."

My mind tried to process what those words meant. Did he travel back already, just to make sure I do it? That means I have to do it right now, doesn't it? I didn't understand what he'd said at all. Whatever it was, I needed to understand or else I couldn't go through time itself to save someone who had already died. The more I thought about it, the less sense it made. I could just shrug it off, I guess, but what good would that do? There was nothing to be done but ask questions. Finally I forgot my pride and humility and decided to sum up the courage to ask some questions.

"I don't understand," I said. "How did you see it happen? Did you- did you go back?"

"Yes," he said. "I did. I didn't know who you were back then, and I was travelling around, looking to see what the causes were. I saw you save this boy, Portin from yourself, and when I saw myself watching, I realized I had to help you. So I traveled to a later time and got you. Now do you understand?"

"A little more," I admitted.

"Good," he replied. "I was hoping so. Anyway, we need to get started. We don't have all day- well, we do, but I'm sure you want to get this taken care of, yeah?"

"Yeah," I said, my voice cracking a bit. I missed Portin, I really did, and the sooner I got him back, the better. Only, I wish that it was simpler. And the fact that I'm saving Portin from a mistake that I made… it made me feel bad. I was the cause of his death. I didn't realize that tears were now starting fall on my face. I heard Jordan speak again.

"You alright?" he asked, again. He seemed to be so concerned about everyone, to the point where it was just a little bit ridiculous.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine," I said, trying to sound calm. "I just- I just really want to get this done." I wiped the tears off my cheeks. "So, can you tell me how this machine works?"

Jordan seemed relieved to have me calmed down a bit. "Yes, yes of course," he said. "Now, the cylinder in the middle? I call that the platform. You stand on it, and the five pumps around it will pick up speed. As they do, you will start to disappear from the platform. Now remember, you have to set the coordinates, make sure they're precise, you know? If you don't, you could end up not being able to do what you need to do. That's why I'll be putting in the coordinates. I gave them to myself, so I'll know what to put in."

I was once again very confused. How could he give himself coordinates when he never really knew them in the first place? All my mind could place was an infinite loop of Jordan giving himself the coordinates and then using them so he could give them to himself again and again and again, until… until what? It would never stop. Sure I would save Portin from myself, but what good would that do? I'd keep on saving him in an endless loop, just like Jordan would give himself the coordinates. My mind tried to push the thought out of my head, but it wouldn't leave. Some other part of me wouldn't let it. So I tried to process it again. But now my mind was going in a loop, trying really hard to understand what was going on. But no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't. Finally I decided to just get this over with.

"Ok, I'm ready. Let's do this," I said.

Jordan didn't seem worried at all, but despite that, he still questioned my actions. "You sure?" he asked.

"Yeah," I replied. "I'm sure."

He walked over to the machine and pulled out a piece of paper from his pocket. He looked at each clock, and then he turned and walked over to some sort of control panel. After pulling a lever, the clocks stopped spinning and the pumps stopped pumping. He walked back over to the machine and started to set the time on one of the clocks. He then set the next one, and the next one, going on and on until all the clocks were set. After that, he pulled each pump to a certain point, and then he circled the whole machine at least half a dozen times, inspecting each little nook and cranny, looking for a flaw. Adjusting this ever so slightly, changing that, until finally, he stepped back, looked at his work, and smiled.

"Ok," he said happily. "It's ready to go. Just step up on that platform. Now remember, you're going to see yourself, just from the past. Do not touch yourself, because that would cause a paradox. Whatever you do, don't let that happen." I took a deep breath, and my legs started to move towards the platform. I pushed myself up onto it, and stood up. I gave Jordan a thumbs up, and he started the machine. I felt my whole body shake and twist, like something was pulling it apart and I closed my eyes. When I opened them, I saw myself. I was screaming at Portin. Just the sight of him made me so happy. I ran towards him, grabbed him by the arm, and pulled him out of the clutches of the insane girl that was once me. After that, I saw her start to cry. I looked over and saw Jordan watching us. I realized that the piece of paper with the coordinates on it was in my pocket. How did it get there? I realized that was for me to decide. I walked over to the past Agraina and cleared my throat. I remember this, now. What she had told me.

"Hey," I said. "I know what you're thinking. It's me; I'm you, from your future. Portin's going to be alright, but it will be a little bit before you see him, ok? You're going to meet someone named Professor Jordan. I want you to give this to him. Can you do that?"

"Yeah, I can do it," she replied. She reached out for the paper, and after she took it, she reached up for my face. I jumped back.

"No!" I said. "You can't touch me! I have to go now, ok?" I ran back over to the platform, but before I could step onto it, everything around me disappeared, and I was in the capsule hotel again, trying to talk to the man who was actually Portin. I still had more questions: how did he get here? Did we really stay that long? Was the problem ever solved? If it took that long for…unless the problem was solved and he went back to see something or solve something here. But what was he here to solve? If we had fixed the problem, what was here to fix? I tried to wrap my head around it, but I couldn't. So maybe if he didn't need to solve something, maybe there was something he needed to see instead. But what would that be? Maybe there was something here that isn't going to be here in the future. Something he wanted to grab, someone he needed to see. And that's when I realized that it was someone. That someone was me. But if he was going back to see me, what happened? Why wasn't I there? Then it hit me. I was going to die. Of course there were many situations where I thought this was going to happen but I never actually thought that I would die. I always thought that somehow, even if I died, I wouldn't. This time, even if I tried to fix it, there was no way if wouldn't happen. I would die, simple as that. Now I was starting to get scared. I guess it was just the fact that I legitimately thought I was going to die, what with everything that was going on. I tried to shrug the thought, but I couldn't. So I decided to ask Portin's future self a couple of questions. I walked over to him and tapped him on the shoulder.

"Hey, can I talk to you?" I asked. My voice lowered. "In private?"


	7. Chapter 7

He looked over at the young version of Portin. Then he turned around. "Yeah," he replied. He showed me to a hallway that led off from the front desk. There were a couple extra rooms through it. I wonder why he didn't tell me about these. They seemed pretty important, because each one had about three locks on it. We walked up to the third one down, where we stopped. Portin pulled out a ring full of keys and opened each lock, one by one. He opened up the door and we went inside. It was a relatively normal room, just like any sort of room that you would see in a hotel. So why were they locked up? I was interrupted by Portin.

"So, what did you want to talk about?" he asked.

"Well," I replied, "I wanted to know why you're here. I know who you are, you know. You never gave me your name, but I don't need it. You're Portin aren't you?"

"Yes, I'm him," he said. "Is there anything else you want to know?"

"Yes, I need to know why you're here," I replied.

"Ok, you really want to know? It's because- because I…" his voice trailed off. I was startled by the hug that I found myself wrapped in. He didn't let go for a while, but when he did, I looked up at him. His eyes, I remembered them so well, from the moment I found to him to the moment that was now. But obviously there was something wrong, because I knew what he was like. He would miss me, oh he would, which meant something was going to happen to me. But was I sure it was going to be death? No, not exactly. Maybe I went missing, maybe I left him, I don't know, but whatever was going to happen, I wanted to make sure that it didn't.

"Agraina?" Portin spoke up, "You ok?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," I replied.

"Ok. We should get back to the lobby," he said quietly. We walked back to the lobby, silenced by the thought of what we both seemed to know would happen. Or maybe he knew more. Maybe he knew something I didn't, something important. If he did, then maybe I should ask him. I still had so many questions about him, and why I wasn't there. I didn't know what I'd do just yet, but I intended to find out more about this whole ordeal. We got out of the hallway and I reunited with Portin.

"What was that all about?" He asked quizzically.

I looked over at future Portin. "Nothing, just nothing," I replied.

"Ok," he said. He seemed a bit worried. I don't blame him; I wasn't exactly acting right, now was I? I wasn't telling him, while his future self told me at least something. I was kind of terrible. I suppose my actions might have been based somewhat on protecting Portin, but mostly, like always, it was for selfish reasons. I wanted to know what was going on before he did. That's always how I worked; I did everything for myself and myself only. I decided that maybe I should tell Portin what was really going on. But not today, not now. I needed to figure out what was going on- exactly what was going on- and fast. If I didn't, God knows what would happen. If I didn't know better, though, I'd say that there was even more to the story. Obviously whatever chemical, or whatever it was that "ended the world" was pretty serious. But the world is still here. A lot of people died, but it's still here. I always imagined that if the world ended, there would probably be tectonic plates ripping apart, things crashing and burning, everyone running in terror, trying to find something to hold on to, and being unable to due to the fact that the world was vanishing. But what I didn't realize is the world wouldn't end screaming. It would quietly and calmly, and even though the planet was still there, the people in it would be gone. I didn't realize just how much worse that sounded. It's like a ship going down without its captain, like everyone abandoned it. It just felt…wrong. Like no one even cared, and if they did, they were already dead. I didn't like that thought one bit. So I decided that I was going to do something about it. I didn't know what, like many cases before, but I would still do something. I decided I should probably get Portin to go off somewhere else, do something, so I could dig deeper into this case; I just wasn't sure what I was going to do. Maybe I'd do some research. But with what? There were no computers, no Wi-Fi, no libraries or books, I would just have to ask people questions. If I could find Jordan again, maybe he'd be able to help me. If he could travel back in time to where it all started, maybe we would know a little more. But that would mean going back into the building, and I wasn't exactly sure if I wanted to do that. Still, it was my best shot, considering there really wasn't any other way to get information. So I went over to Portin and tried to convince him to go back in the hotel.

"I'm not going back in there!" he screamed. "I don't know where you're going!"

"It's ok Portin, I'll be back soon," I replied, trying to sound calm. He was angry about it, but he finally relented. I walked him in, and then climbed out of the ladder and back onto the surface. I looked for the tunnel, and when I found it, started walking through it again. I forgot just how deep the tunnels went, because I found myself a little claustrophobic as I pushed myself to keep walking, when it felt as if the walls and ceiling could cave in at any given moment. I started to run, thinking maybe if I didn't, I'd be dead. But the ceiling, the walls, they didn't cave in; they just stayed. When I finally made it out, I looked over and to my horror there it was; the building. The shape-shifting building. This time, it was relatively large. It was white, with a lot of windows and a lot of doors. It sort of looked like a big motel, only it wasn't. It had a sign above the main entrance that read _Institute Involving Time Travel _on it. I decided that maybe it'd be worth a shot to just go in. I thought about for a moment, though. What if it wasn't the institute? What if I got taken again? I looked down at the scars on my wrist, remembering just how hard it really was to push through everything that was in my way. Just how much more trauma would I go through if I walked through those doors now and saw that everything was a lie. I couldn't do it, but I had to. So I took a deep breath and started walking toward the door. I felt my hand reach out for the knob, and grab it. Then, I twisted my wrist, and before I knew it, I was in the lobby, looking around. The few survivors in the area seemed to live here, or they were planning on it. People sat in chairs with luggage next to them, while others were up at the front desk, talking to a clerk or waiting in line. It seemed more like a college or a hotel than an institute. Still, there were halls with different research facilities held within them. A few of them had to do with different machines; others were how to set coordinates on clocks, there were many others, but one had specifically caught my eye. It was one single room, no label above the door, but it stuck out to me. I found myself walking towards it, only to be interrupted by one of the clerks.

"Excuse me, but you can't go in there," he said, a lot of authority in his voice.

"What's in that room anyway?" I asked.

"We can't let you in there is all that matters," he said, now sounding more annoyed than ever.

"Well if I can't go in there I'd least like to know why," I retorted. I suppose I was pushing my luck, because he picked up the phone and started dialing.

"Hello?" he said. "Professor? Yeah, I'm going to need you downstairs, we've run into a bit of a problem." He looked up at me and glared. I sat down on one of the chairs, now getting several angry glances from some of the other customers. Is that what they were? Customers? Or maybe they were students, maybe they worked here. Whatever they were doing here, I didn't like the way they looked at me. Their faces seemed so judging, so cruel; it was almost like they knew who I was and what I did. My thought cleared when I heard the sound of footsteps behind me.

"Hello, my name is Professor Jordan," the voice behind me rang out. "I'm from the Institute Involving Time Travel."


	8. Chapter 8

I whirled around, just barely stopping myself from sending a punch directly in his face. Instead only a few words came tumbling out.

"Um…Hi," I gasped.

"Hello. Can I ask what your name is?" he inquired calmly.

"Agraina Loftkin," I replied, trying desperately to calm down.

"Hello, Agraina, how are you?" he asked. He sounded so much calmer than me.

"Um, I'm alright. Don't you remember me?" I asked.

"Remember you?" he said, sounding confused. "Why would I? We've never met."

When he said this, I lost all the calm I had. That's when I went running through the halls, knocking things away as I went. I had gone insane in that moment: I had no idea what it was that had come over me, but as I ran, taking things and smashing them, I felt hands grip my upper arms and suddenly reality disappeared and I was asleep.

When I woke up, I was strapped to a bed, unable to move. I looked around, and as I did I realized that this place was a lot more like a hospital than anything else. There was nothing plugged into me, and with a small raise of my head I knew I was alone, but still, I was nervous. I looked out the window that led to the halls. There was a sign that read _Mentally Ill _on it. Mentally ill? I suppose my rampage earlier had to do with that, but I was still angry. I wasn't always mentally ill, and I certainly wasn't now. I was just misunderstood. I wanted to get out of this place, and quickly. I started to scream for someone to let me out, not realizing that it wouldn't help with my current situation. Someone rushed in and injected me with another shot of whatever it was that had caused me to go to sleep before. When I was asleep, I started dreaming. Dreaming of life before all this, back when things were normal, and right. My mom was making breakfast, while my older sister helped. I was on my laptop.

"You should get off that thing and start helping us," she said. I gave an exasperated sigh and looked back at my screen. Suddenly my sister's face changed into a monsters and she grabbed my laptop, picked it up and smashed it on the ground. I woke up a sweaty, screaming mess. Some woman ran in and asked me what was wrong.

"Nothing," I said. "Nothing, it was just a dream." I was still trying to catch my breath. With a short nod, she left the room. I was alone again. I didn't know how long, there were no clocks in the room and I sort of drifted in and out sleep, but when I finally heard footsteps, I was surprised to see that it was Jordan who walked in.

"Hey, how are you?" he asked quietly.

"Feeling a little bit better," I replied. "Do you really not know who I am?"

"Well," he said calmly, "When it comes to time travel, lots of things happen out of order. I may not know you yet, but a future version of me will. I met you just now, and I will meet you again. It's just how things work, Agraina."

I nodded, trying to make more possible sense of what he had just said. I understood that things can happen out of order well enough, I just didn't understand how or why it had to happen to me. I mean, the more I thought about it, the less sense it made. I tried to think of how this might affect me positively, but I couldn't think of one possible way. I didn't understand how everything could just go to hell that quickly, but it did. My life had fallen apart. Of course, it had never been exactly right; my youngest sister killed herself as soon as she knew what killing meant. Our family was never what you'd call functional, and as for me, well, I wasn't exactly happy with myself either. Every teenage girl is self-conscious about things, some more than others, but I was so self-conscious it was unreal. Any negative remark about my appearance, sarcastic or serious, would drop my mood to an all time low instantly. My mother tried to get me in therapy, but it didn't work. I just sat numb in the chair, not listening to anything the therapist said. My mother then cancelled the sessions, explaining they were a waste of money and they weren't doing me any good. She was right, of course, but that didn't change the fact that she had tried it in the first place. Why therapy? I honestly didn't see how it would help my situation. Was over self-consciousness that big of a problem? I had always been weakened by it; at school, at church, at home, no matter where I was, I always seemed to be worried about the way I looked and the way everyone else thought I looked. It wasn't like there was anything I could do about it; it was extremely hard for me to just stop caring. I suppose that was why my mom thought therapy would work. All in all, it was a good theory. But, obviously, it was proven wrong. We tried a lot of things, really, we did, but there wasn't very much to try, so everything got zapped away pretty quickly. It turned out the whole time it was a passing thing; after I turned fourteen it just sort of faded. This was fine by me, of course. But once I got over it, I wasn't the same; it was like I went from having too many emotions to having none at all. I got used to it after a while, but it was weird. About four months after my self-consciousness left, I was taken… wait a minute. Four months after my self-consciousness faded, I was taken. What did that mean? I honestly had no idea, but maybe there was a connection. I didn't see quite where yet, but maybe one day I would. Until then, I had other things to do.

"Can I go now?" I asked Jordan.

"Oh," he said, surprised. "Let's wait a little bit before we do that. You can get off the bed, though." He undid the straps and I could stand up again. I stretched, and looked around. I started to walk down the hallway, the floor cold against my bare feet. The halls were clean, and they smelled like a hospital's. That bandage and fluid smell that they all have, it was there. I looked in at one of the rooms and saw some people in white coats messing around with pumps and machinery. They glanced up at me, only for a second, and continued on with their work. I wondered what it would be like to work here at the end of everything. How much everyone would depend on me. Of course, that depended on how important the job was. If I was like Jordan, I could do so much, I'd be responsible and calm, and everyone would look up to me. But, unfortunately, I wasn't him, I was me; and the only thing I could do was push through what was happening now.

I went through a couple more halls until I reached the lobby again. Some of the people were still there, while others were on their way into various different rooms. They were lead in by some of the people that worked there. The others, the ones that stayed seemed very bored and irritated, like they'd been waiting a very long time. I had been in that room for a while; it seemed strange that they would still be waiting there. And what exactly for? I saw those people walk through those doors, but why? What were they doing in there? Suddenly a memory flashed through my mind. I remembered in that moment, that I wasn't taken, I was led. Just like the people being led in now. I remembered my suitcase, packed and ready to go as I walked through those exact doors and was led to a room where they attacked me. They put a cloth full of some sort of drug against my face, and I blacked out. I remembered waking up to being tied to a chair. They tortured me for hours, never letting me do anything but scream. How did I forget this? It was like someone created an artificial memory and burned it into my mind. Someone really smart, who knew a lot about the mind and things similar to it…my thoughts froze at the sound of Professor Jordan's voice.

"Well, well, well, you're up and about I see," he said. I could smell the anger in his voice, like he knew what I was thinking. Did he?

"You're wondering if I'm monitoring your mind," he said calmly. "The answer is, yes, I am. I thought that maybe saving your friend would help you trust me more, but just in case, I got a connection to your brain tissue. It didn't really hurt, just a few injections that knock you out so I could really get to work on your brain. Remarkable things, brains, they're just like machines, only more…emotional. I've always loved looking at them, but yours was a bit different. Yours was full of untouched memories, all over the place. It was almost as if someone had put up a memory barrier in your brain. But I wouldn't know about any of that, would I?"

"Shut up! Just shut up!" I screamed. Some of the people looked at me strangely. Jordan looked over at them and smirked.

"Ok, guys. You can all go in. Right through those doors, ok? A representative will be with you shortly," his voice rang out calmly through the doors. My first instinct was to warn them. I wanted to scream at them, make them listen, but I just couldn't. So I kept quiet as they were marched into those doors. I remembered it, when I had been walked through; tortured and broken to bits. And it wasn't just physically, but mentally. My soul had been ripped to shreds, and I hadn't even remembered. I suppose it had been Jordan, too, who had done all of it, but if it wasn't I would be very concerned.

"Why did you block those memories?" I asked him.

"To protect you, of course," he replied calmly. I hated his attitude; it was like he just didn't care.

"Ok," I said, ready to fight back, "If you wanted to protect me so bad, how come you were the one who issued all of that?"

He laughed. "Oh, I didn't do that, Agraina. But I can tell you who did."

"Well then who?!" I screamed.

"Hold on, hold on," he said. "I said I _could _tell you. I didn't say I _would_."

"Well then you better tell me," I said, "Or-

"Or what?" he retorted. "I can read everything you're thinking. Do you really think you can do anything to harm me?"

"I can try," I replied smartly.

Once more, he laughed. "Well," he said, "You can tell that to the tranquilizer."

"The-the…" I never finished my sentence because I felt myself drifting off to sleep.

I couldn't even begin to count the number of times I had been on and off unconscious since this whole thing began, but all I knew was that it was a lot. Awaking from that state over and over was starting to wear away my strength. Slowly, but surely, I was weakening. I could feel it, all of the energy that I once had just fading away. So this time, when I awoke, I could barely move my fingers. I tried to lift my arm up, but even when I used all my strength, I couldn't do it. With a lot of effort, I managed to turn my head to the other side, and I saw Jordan handing some papers over to one of the workers. I closed my eyes again, hoping he'd think I was still asleep. I think it worked; because he just had someone carry me into another room. I waited there, for a long time, hoping someone would come and do something to break through the deafening silence in the room. I heard muffled noises outside, carts being pushed around; small beeps from machines, and voices. I could never quite understand what they were saying, because they were very muffled, but I knew they were voices. Despite my want it to happen, no one came in. I stayed there for what felt like years; maybe it was only a few hours, but it felt longer. I just laid there, waiting and waiting. I wondered if Portin was looking for me, if maybe he somehow got sent back into the halls. Or back into the rooms, those horrible places where we waited for hours. Maybe we did wait for years there, I honestly wish I could figure out what year it was so I could find out how old I was. I wondered why I hadn't asked before. After all, there were plenty of people, even Jordan, who could have answered that question for me. I decided to try and get up, maybe ask somebody. I made an effort to lift my legs off the bed, and much to my surprise, they slid off and onto the floor in one perfect motion. I could move again, thank goodness. I stood up, and after wobbling a little bit, I started to walk towards the door. It was open, and nothing happened to me as I passed through the doorway, so I figured it was fine. I went up to one of the workers and tapped her on the shoulder. I spoke up as she turned around.

"Hey, weird question. What year is it?" I asked as I rubbed my eyes.

The woman laughed. "It's 2034, dear," she said softly.

"Oh," I said, disappointed. "2034. Thanks." I walked away. 2034. I would be 21. 21 years old, and this whole time I thought I was a teenager. I wondered how old everyone else was, if they had been here long or not. I realized I didn't know how long I'd been here; maybe I was a teenager when I came and now I was 21. Or maybe I had been an adult this entire time. I didn't know for sure, so I decided maybe I'd ask someone if they knew how long this has been going on. There was another employee over by a doorway to someone's room. I thought maybe he'd know, so I went up to him and cleared my throat.

"Excuse me sir, but could you tell me how long this whole-um-apocalypse thing has been going on?" I asked as politely as I could.

He smiled. I wasn't sure if he was being friendly or not, until I realized I lost his attention and he decided not to reply to me. I tapped his shoulder as nicely as I could.

"Excuse me sir, I um-I asked you how long this has been going on, I was just wondering if you…"

"No," he replied. "No I don't. Ask someone else."

I shrugged and walked away. I wondered what was up with him. I mean, obviously there was something he wasn't telling me, but I had no idea what, so I figured I'd just leave it alone. It was the first time in a long time that I had done that. I remember that as a child it was hard to let anything go. I always seemed to dig and dig and dig until I found the answer to something. It was never a good thing; and I was just so stubborn, it was really quite ridiculous. I never ever wanted to leave a question unanswered; not when I had the chance to answer it. So now, I was just walking away. It was strange, not knowing the answer. Maybe he had been traumatized by something that happened when it started. Lost someone, done something he shouldn't have. We've all been there, I've done both and gotten the t-shirt. I knew what it was like, so I could just ask someone else, like he said. I looked around the room to see if there was anyone else I could ask. That's when I spotted somebody who looked a little disappointed.

"Hey," I said after I had walked up to him. "You okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine, just a little annoyed," he said quietly.

"Oh," I said, wondering what he meant. "Annoyed with-what, exactly?"

"Well," he said, lowering his voice further. "The Professor-well he isn't letting me go any further with my experiment. I wanted to figure out how to make a portable time machine, as in microscopic portable. I was so close, I thought I could change so much around the institute, but then Jordan threatened me."

"He did what?" I asked.

"He said I could lose my job if I didn't stand down," he said sadly.

"Oh, well that sucks," I said. "When did he tell you this?"

"About seven years ago," he said. "Around the time when it all started."

And there it was. My answer. I had finally gotten my answer. But seven years, that's a long time. I thought about how long it had really been. I was fourteen when they took me. It had been a while, obviously, and I had been here way longer than I thought. Which meant everyone else here had probably been here for quite some time, too. After all, if they hadn't where could they be before they got here? I thought maybe if I asked around, someone else could give me the answers I needed. But as I tried talking to more people, they talked less. Finally, I decided I had the big answer that I needed, and I didn't need to do anymore. But as I was wondering aimlessly around the lobby, I saw Jordan in the corner of my eye.

"Hello, Agraina," he said with a stingy edge.

I whirled around to look at him, when I saw the smirk on his face. What was he so happy about? I wanted to know, because unlike the worker who wouldn't answer my question, this couldn't wait.

"You seem happy," I replied, trying to sound calm.

"You've been asking around," he said.

"What's it to you?" I said, my voice starting to shake.

"Well, your mind isn't the only one that I've been monitoring," he said eerily. "You see, I don't exactly trust all my employees. Their brains are important to me too. So, when you ask them about their problems and they tell you? Well they're not exactly telling you the whole truth. They weren't telling me, either. And as you may know, I wasn't exactly happy about that. The things that went through their mind as they explained their problems to you, they were very treasonous things. I don't appreciate that, you see. So, basically, what it is to me, well, it's like this: everyone you just talked to is dead. Have a nice day."

He ran off quickly, and just as I was about to run after him, I felt a hand grab my arm.

"No, don't go after him," The voice behind me said.

I turned around to see the guys I had just been talking with before Jordan interrupted me.

"You're still here," I said, surprised at his presence.

"Of course I am," he replied. "Why wouldn't I be?"

"He said you'd all…never mind," I said, dismissing the matter with a wave of my hand.

"What?" he asked persistently.

"Nothing, I said never mind, conversation over; it's not important," I said. I was started to get irritated. Yes, I knew I should have said anything about what Jordan told me, but I didn't finish saying it. I guess that's what made it worse. Couldn't he just leave it alone? Of course it was hypocritical for me to expect that from him; especially when I always pushed people when they didn't tell me the whole truth. Still, I didn't want to tell him he was supposed to be dead. That's not something anyone would want to know. Still, maybe he deserved to know it. I mean, if someone knew that I was going to die, I'm pretty sure I'd want to know too. But I barely knew this guy, and there were bigger things going on here. So despite the fact that he followed me and continually asked the same question over and over, I kept walking. That was. Until I remembered what he told me.

"Why did you tell me not to go after Jordan?" I said after I whirled around to glare at him.

"Because you could end up killed!" he replied angrily. The words stung in my ears as I thought of what Jordan said. _Everyone you just talked to is dead. _Why didn't he kill this guy? He said worse things than anyone else did! He was the one who got everything clicking in my brain. Or maybe that's why he wasn't the one to die. There could literally be a million reasons why I shouldn't trust him; and just as many reasons why I shouldn't. But how was I supposed to know what to do? This was far too frustrating. Was it a trick? A trap? Something I shouldn't even worry about? But after everything that happened, I should probably worry about it.

I looked up to see he was still standing there, just staring at me with an emotionless stare.

"What's your name, anyway?" I asked sharply. "And why are staring at me like that? You're really creeping me out!"

He looked at me for a while, and I looked back; that is, until I became unable to hold his stare. As I looked down, he finally replied.

"My name is Pio," he replied. "And I'm not staring at you."

I only scoffed at his flat out lie. It made me really start to think that he was working with Jordan. There was no doubt about it; he more than likely was being paid to do it as well. Double crossing, a jerk, cruel, all of those were words that described him. Why on Earth would _anyone _want to work with someone like Jordan?


End file.
